St. Louis Man Gets 9-Year Sentence for Attempted 40-Pound Meth Purchase in Undercover Sting

A St. Louis man has been sentenced to nine years behind bars for his attempt to acquire a hefty 40 pounds of methamphetamine, as reported by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Missouri. Richard Treis, aged 51, along with an associate named Dennis Dewrock, found themselves caught in an undercover sting operation when they arrived at a Missouri gas station prepared to swap cash for narcotics on July 29, 2020.

Treis’s plans came crumbling down when Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in El Paso, Texas, previously got wind of a scheme orchestrated from behind bars. Tarik “Morocco” Mazhar, serving time at the Great Plains Correctional Institution in Hinton, Oklahoma, was using a contraband cell phone to arrange the purchase, as per the

U.S Attorney’s Office

. It was then that an HSI undercover agent stepped in. Upon Treis confirming the meet-up in Missouri, he and Mazhar, through the illicit communications device, even went as far as to send images of the cash to the agent. Instead of a successful transaction, Treis and Dewrock were promptly arrested after exchanging the money for what they believed to be methamphetamine.

In a turn of events reflecting the severity of drug trafficking offenses, Treis pled guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine, as detailed by the District Court’s account. The guilty plea also required him to relinquish $128,000 that had been held by Homeland Security Investigations.

Additional details surfaced, revealing that Mazhar, now 43, pled guilty in December 2021, to a similar methamphetamine conspiracy charge, which earned him a 13-year stint in prison, and Dewrock, 55, pled guilty to the conspiracy charge and received a five-year sentence. The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, with Assistant U.S. Attorney Ricardo Dixon taking the helm in prosecution.

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